Once Upon a Katamari (PS5)

Following Touch My Katamari on the PS Vita in 2011 (2012 in the US), the Katamari series went dormant for years aside from mobile games, until the release of Katamari Damacy Reroll (Reroll) in 2018, as part of a series of remakes from Bandai Namco, showed a willingness to revisit the series. The success of Reroll led to a follow-up, We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie in 2023, the success of which created the possibility of further installments. This would come to fruition with the announcement of a proper new game earlier this year, the first in 14 years, titled Once Upon a Katamari. As a fan of the Katamari series who had actually been waiting for such an announcement the whole time, the news and initial trailer was enough to excite me, albeit with cautious optimism. Thankfully, this optimism paid off, as it feels like the spirit of Katamari is alive and well in this installment.

Second Look - Touch My Katamari

As the popularity of the Katamari series continued, the series later ventured back into the handheld space, this time with a launch title for the PS Vita in 2012 (2011 in Japan) called Touch My Katamari. Unfortunately, the game was a failure, resulting in the series going all but dormant for 14 years until the announcement of Once Upon a Katamari, at least partially attributed to the PS Vita itself failing as a system. The formal return of the franchise led me to dig out my copy of Touch My Katamari, which I last played in 2013 according to my save data, to reevaluate my opinions. Looking back on it, although I noticed more flaws in the game this time, I still found it an ultimately entertaining experience, even if not the best.

Katamari Forever

While Beautiful Katamari was the first Katamari game to be absent from a PlayStation console, it would return to the PS3 with Katamari Forever, a tribute to five years of the franchise. I actually remember playing this game when it first came out and liked it enough to consider it my personal favorite of the series, but over time I had forgotten the nuances of the game itself. On booting the game back up again in anticipation of Once Upon A Katamari, this turned out to be because I hadn’t played it since 2011. While I was noticing more flaws this time, I was ultimately reminded why I considered it my favorite, and still is.

Second Look - Beautiful Katamari (+ DLC)

As the Katamari series continued to show success, a new console game was made following the handheld Me & My Katamari. In a departure from previous titles which were on the PlayStation family of systems, this new game, Beautiful Katamari, was released exclusively for the Xbox 360; the intent was to go multiplatform, however only the Xbox 360 version ever got made. After mainly sticking with the PlayStation line for the longest time, since it has most of the games I want to play, Beautiful Katamari was on my radar when I finally branched out to the Xbox systems, and so I played it once I got the chance. At the time, I did not buy the DLC, which I would later check off my shopping list when the Xbox 360 store was shutting down, but I would not revisit the game again until the announcement of the upcoming Once Upon A Katamari.

As of this writing, I have yet to resolve some issues I have been having with my Xbox 360, so it was fortunate that I was able to play this game again, DLC included, on the Xbox Series X as part of the backwards compatibility program, though I will admit to playing with a DualSense through a converter to make it more comfortable for me to play. On my most recent playthrough, I liked it more than I remembered, though my feelings remain mixed.

Me & My Katamari

With the success of We Love Katamari on the PS2, it was natural for Namco to want to capitalize further on the Katamari brand with or without Keita Takahashi’s involvement. In a first for the series, Namco proceeded without him for a new entry made for the PSP, Me & My Katamari, in 2005. Regardless of its issues, the PSP was my handheld of choice for many years and helped get me through high school, with this game being part of my library since I was obsessed with the series at the time. With the announcement of Once Upon A Katamari on modern platforms, I decided to take another look at this game on another save file, though I was surprised to see that I hadn’t played it since 2010. While I would still consider the game to be pretty fun, enough time has passed that its flaws stand out more to me through fresh eyes.

20 Small Mazes

I’m not much of a PC player in comparison to console, so it’s not often I play a game based on Steam recommendations. Recently, while getting free items from a string of Fests, I decided to take a look and was recommended the indie puzzle game 20 Small Mazes, which looked interesting enough to try, especially since it was available for free. While short, the amount of creativity on display makes it a fun time while it lasts, even with the limited replay value.

We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie (PS5)

As part of Bandai Namco’s recent efforts to remaster old Namco games to bring back old and negelcted IPs, Katamari Damacy was reissued through Katamari Damacy Reroll in 2018, bringing the fun and addicting game to a new generation. Following this, a remaster of the second game in the series and the only other game to be directed by Keita Takahashi, We Love Katamari, was announced in the form of We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie (WLK Reroll), including extra content not found in the original release. Having played the original before, I was curious about the new content and went for a PS5 copy of the game, primarily because of how much I associate the brand with PlayStation, and found it to be the superior way to play the game.

Katamari Damacy Reroll (PS4)

 

With the increasing complexity of the gaming landscape at the time, director Keita Takahashi created Katamari Damacy with the intent of creating something simpler that was also fun, though he had difficulty getting it off the ground due to him being in Namco’s art department at the time. When the game first released for the PS2 in 2004, his efforts paid off, spawning a long-running franchise across multiple console generations, only for it to becomes largely dormant following Touch My Katamari on the PS Vita in 2012 before coming back into full swing in 2020 with Katamari Damacy Reroll, a remaster of the original game for then-modern hardware. When I first played the original game on the PS2, I was instantly hooked by its simple, yet addictive nature, leading to it becoming one of my all-time favorite series. Due to the large gap of time following the PS Vita game, I became instantly excited by Katamari Damacy Reroll (Reroll) when it released for the Switch, but ended up holding out until it received a PS4 release, as it was my preferred platform anyway since I more heavily associate the series with the PlayStation brand, though the timing of its release led me to not play it until recently when its sequel, We Love Katamari, received a remaster of its own. After having not played the game for so long, Katamari Damacy Reroll served as a great reminder of why I loved the series in the first place.

Little Inferno: Ho Ho Holiday (DLC)

When Little Inferno first came out in 2012, I had a fun time, and on another playthrough 10 years later, I thought it still held up pretty well. Around the time of my second playthrough, a 10-year anniversary celebration was held by developer Tomorrow Corporation, which among other things included a brand new DLC campaign, Ho Ho Holiday, although I admit I did not realize the DLC existed until about a few weeks later. After playing $5 for said DLC, I found the price of admission to be worth it, though only really for fans of the original game.

Hitman GO: Definitive Edition

In a series as extensive as Hitman, there is one side entry that’s easy to overlook. Back in 2014, Square Enix released the series’ first mobile game, Hitman GO, which gained critical acclaim for successfully translating the Hitman formula to a portable device. In 2015, a console and PC port, Hitman GO: Definitive Edition, was released with improved visuals and all of the DLC included. This was the version I later bought for only $0.80 during a massive sale Square Enix held when the game’s developer, Square Enix Montréal, was acquired by Embracer Group. With the chance to finally play this lesser-known title, I’m now left wondering why I didn’t do it sooner.

The Looker

While The Witness initially released in 2016 to critical acclaim, it wasn’t without fault. Said faults were then taken and exaggerated in a parody known as The Looker, which was released earlier this year. As a fan of The Witness, when I first heard about The Looker, I thought I might get a kick out of it and decided to give it a try, the main motivator being that it was released for free via Steam. After going through the game mostly blind, I certainly got the entertainment value I was expecting out of it, possibly even more.

Snake Pass

During 2017, 3D platformers saw a resurgence in interest, due in part to indie developers exploring new options with the genre. Of the more well-known attempts at reviving the genre, the one that received a lot of attention was Yooka-Laylee, developed by former members of Rare, a British developer known for such titles as Banjo-Kazooie, GoldenEye 007 and Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Having no nostalgia for Rare’s titles, however, I found myself more interested in two of its competitors, Snake Pass and A Hat in Time, the former of which I would pick up as a free giveaway through Humble Bundle. With this in mind, I thought that Snake Pass’ main gimmick of a platformer without jumping really allows for some innovative ideas, but I’m not sure I would have liked it as much if I had paid its $20 asking price.

Antichamber

While trying to create a multiplayer version of Snake in Unreal Engine 3, Alexander "Demruth" Bruce made a simple coding mistake that inspired him down a completely different direction. Years later, this direction manifested in 2013 as Antichamber, a first-person puzzle game that heavily involved non-Euclidian space and subtly incorporated philosophical ideas. While the game may not have the same amount of attention it once did eight years ago, it’s still an engaging, if very mind-bending, game.

Return of the Obra Dinn

Shortly after Lucas Pope’s successful Papers, Please in 2013, he started development on Return of the Obra Dinn, which launched in 2018. Though I didn’t closely follow the game at all, I heard enough positive word of mouth that I eventually bought the physical PS4 version through Limited Run. Waiting for the opportunity to play it this way was well worth it, as it’s easily one of the best puzzle games in years.

Papers, Please

When Lucas Pope released Papers, Please in 2013, it quickly received critical acclaim and landed on lists of the best games of that year. Though I had an awareness of the game at the time, including a hilarious Mega64 sketch, I didn’t get around to actually playing the Steam version until faced with a global pandemic and, even then, only after watching a few videos on YouTube of people playing the first few in-game days. As I watched these videos, however, I felt that they had, unintentionally or not, made the game look more difficult than it really was. After finally playing it myself, I can conclude that while it didn’t feel as difficult as it looked, it really deserved all the praise it got.

Little Nightmares II (PS4)

After the release of Little Nightmares in 2017 and its Secrets of the Maw DLC, a follow-up game, Little Nightmares II, was announced in 2019. Having played the original game and its DLC, I was curious to see what direction the game would take, especially since it introduces a new playable character. After playing a demo for the game on PC, since that was the only platform I was aware I could play it on, I was intrigued even further and pre-ordered the game when I could. While short, I found Little Nightmares II to be an overall improvement over the original in terms of gameplay with some interesting ideas of its own, though the otherwise compelling story gets a little hazy towards the end.

Devil Dice

As with any major console release, “homebrew” development exists to allow people to make their own games for a given system in an unofficial capacity. However, it’s not too often that any of said games get an official major release. Such is the case with Devil Dice (XI [sai] in Japan), a dice puzzle game from developer Shift of God Eater and Code Vein fame, originally developed for the Net Yaroze homebrew platform. After stumbling upon Devil Dice’s existence after having already owned its follow-up title, Bombastic, I managed to find it in a used game store on a trip to Texas, though I didn’t get around to playing it until recently. After getting the chance to play it, I found it to be a rather unique and enjoyable title in the puzzle game space.

Bridge Constructor Portal (Xbox One)

As someone who enjoyed Portal and Portal 2, the idea of Bridge Constructor Portal intrigued me, particularly the idea of putting Portal's unique brand of puzzle solving into a different genre. When the opportunity presented itself, I bought a physical Xbox One disc, but it wasn't until more recently that I found the time to sit down and play it. Though I enjoyed the few hours I spent with my first real crack at a bridge construction game, I did find my enthusiasm gradually tempered by the game’s idea of challenge.

Helltaker

Helltaker, developed by vanripper, flew under my radar when it launched on May 11, 2020, but my general browsing habits eventually led me to it. When I found out soon after that it was free, with the only DLC consisting of an art book and pancake recipe, I immediately added it to my Steam library and considered when to play it. Once I learned of its length, I jumped right into playing and now I’m glad I did.

The Witness

In 2008, game developer Jonathan Blow released Braid, which proved to be a major success for him. His follow-up game, The Witness, actually piqued my interest on the premise of it being a puzzle-based game taking place on an island in homage to Myst. When the game finally came out in 2016, I was one of many who was turned off by the initial $40 price tag, though I still kept track of the game on digital platforms to see when it would reach a good discount. I ultimately ended up finally playing the game when it became available for free for PlayStation Plus members in March 2019. While I did feel the 3-year wait was worth it, I overall have mixed feelings about my experience.